Why Some Special Economic Zones Attract More Firms than Others? Panel Data Analysis of Polish Special
Why Some Special Economic Zones Attract More Firms than Others? Panel Data Analysis of Polish Special

Summary/Abstract: Using a unique firm-level data for Polish Special Economic Zones (SEZ) to estimatea set of panel data models we find that both employment and investment growth in SEZare driven mainly by labour market characteristics of zone-hosting regions, while otherfactors (including market access, zone business climate and firms’ concentration) playa less important role. Firms choose their locations based on labour availability ratherthan on labour costs. Moreover, they pay particular attention to availability of low-skilledrather than high-skilled labour. As far as tax incentives are concerned, their predictabilitymatters more for SEZ development than their generosity.

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